The present invention generally relates to an office information system, and in particular to an office information system suitable for visualization and control of information circulation when office workers mutually exchange electronic mail messages by using a decentralized information system having a plurality of work stations connected via a network.
As cost and weight of personal computers and word processors are reduced, a large number of office workers have come to edit documents and spread sheets (hereafter collectively referred to as office automation (OA) objects) by using computers. Heretofore, software systems for processing these office automation (OA) objects have provided functions of aiding personal work in a closed system. However, it is hard to say that software systems have supported cooperative work by a plurality of workers as a group or groups.
Electronic mail services are included in the rudiments of cooperative work. As for the electronic mail, OFIS/MAIL-EV (manual No. 2050-3-061) of Hitachi, Ltd. and techniques which will be described later are known. They have functions such as carbon copy mail, express mail and confidential mail. In addition, they have a function of mailing to a remote location via a plurality of computers. These electronic mailing systems have automated conventional postal service of offices and achieved speeding-up of information exchange.
In JP-A-60-134371 of the present inventors, there is disclosed an information storage and utilization method of storing procedure information relating to event-driven processing procedures, retrieving the above-described procedure information upon occurrence of a certain event, and automatically executing the procedure in an event-driven manner in accordance with pertinent procedure information if the pertinent procedure information is present. A typical example of events is xe2x80x9cmail receptionxe2x80x9d, and a receiving person can define what should be done for the received mail. However, control exercised over mail by a sending person is not considered at all. A conventional technique similar to this is described in xe2x80x9cA xe2x80x98Spreadsheetxe2x80x99 for Cooperative Workxe2x80x9d by Kum-Yew Lai et al., CSCW ""88, pp. 115-124 (September 1988).
In xe2x80x9cA Language/Action Perspective on the Design of Cooperative Workxe2x80x9d by Terry Winograd, Morgan Kaufmann Publisher, Inc., 1988, a technique of modeling a state transition for conversation is disclosed. The modeling technique involves registration means for registering a conversation structure model including request, proposal, counterproposal, promise, and disapproval defined beforehand by a system designer, and means for tracking the circulation of xe2x80x9cconversationxe2x80x9d by using the conversation structure model. A user is thus reminded of pending matters.
The above-described thesis makes no mention of definition of control over mail given by a sender.
In conventional electronic mail systems as exemplified above, all control determining xe2x80x9cuntil when and what should be done for received mailxe2x80x9d was basically left to the receiving person as represented by the expression xe2x80x9cdetermined by receiving person after being receivedxe2x80x9d. Further, the sender could know xe2x80x9cwhether mail had arrived or notxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cwhether the mail had been read or notxe2x80x9d. However, the sender could not know xe2x80x9chow the mail had been processedxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cwhy the mail had not been processedxe2x80x9d, which were truly desired to be known via the system. Further, the sender could not modify mail once transmitted by means of the sender""s own operation. From the point of view of a receiver, the receiver must monitor reception for himself when there is mail to be necessarily received.
Conventional mail is effectively used in one way message passing. However, the functional limitation heretofore described brings about a problem of the conventional mail that OA objects mailed to request receiving persons to take action often are left unprocessed. This functional limitation is basically caused by the fact that conventional mail systems are designed by faithfully modeling the postal service of offices.
That is to say, in conventional electronic mail systems, consideration is not fully given to system support relating to visualization and control of flow of OA objects needed when a plurality of office workers cooperate with each other asynchronously, which is a feature of office work.
An object of the present invention is to provide an office information system eliminating the above-described problem of the conventional technique in which a circulation state such as stagnation of mailed information is difficult to see and control is left in the hands of a user, by improving the circulation of OA objects on a network, i.e., by aiding asynchronous business transactions included in cooperative office work.
In order to achieve the above-described object, an office information system according to one feature of the present invention includes a plurality of processing stations connected via a network, each station including means for defining control information with respect to an OA object circulating through the network, control means for interpreting the defined control information to execute relevant control, means for storing a log or record of processing applied to the OA object (hereafter referred to as processing log memory means), means for inquiring of another station the state of the OA object (hereafter referred to as task tracking instruction means), and means for answering an inquiry from another station (hereafter referred to as task tracking means). Further, these means can include the following functional aspects.
For one aspect, the control information definition means is provided with a function of xe2x80x9callowing a sender to define what kind of processing a receiver can conduct with respect to mailxe2x80x9d, and the processing log memory means is provided with a function of storing xe2x80x9cinformation as to what the receiver has done with respect to received mail or whether the receiver has done something with respect to the received mail,xe2x80x9d whereas the control means is provided with a function of xe2x80x9cguiding the receiver as to what the receiver should do by referring to both of these information piecesxe2x80x9d.
In order to highly advance the flow control of OA objects, information representing xe2x80x9cthe deadline for processing and conditions of processingxe2x80x9d is included in control information defined by the sender. On the other hand, the above-described control means is provided with a function of prompting the receiver to process the received mail when a fixed time interval before the above-described deadline is reached or that deadline is exceeded, a function of causing a report to inform the sender that the transmitted mail is not processed, or a function of causing a report to inform the sender or the receiver of unsatisfied conditions in processing.
From another point of view, these functions include allowing the sender to track the mail once transmitted. That is to say, the above-described task tracking instruction means is provided with a function of xe2x80x9cmaking inquiries about the processing statusxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cchanging control information once definedxe2x80x9d, and the task tracking means is provided with a function of answering such inquiries. The control information definition means is provided with a function of xe2x80x9callowing not only the sender but also the receiver to change control information once definedxe2x80x9d.
Further, the control information definition means is provided with a function of defining xe2x80x9cinformation relating to schedule of reception of mail by the expected receiver or information relating to the day""s schedule under which the expected receiver will be absent and cannot access the systemxe2x80x9d.
According to the present invention, the system itself stores and interprets control information relating to the flow of an OA object on the network, which has been conventionally involved in the memory of an office worker, and guides the office worker to work to be done by the office worker. Therefore, the chance that the OA object will stagnate at a certain location is reduced, resulting in improved circulation of OA objects on the network.